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Iraq in Al Qaeda?

In his review of “World War IV” and “The Iranian Time Bomb” (Sept. 9), Peter Beinart errs in asserting that the case for Saddam Hussein’s involvement in jihadist terrorism and, most notably, in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing has been refuted. Rather, the central points — as presented in my book “Study of Revenge” — have been either ignored or grossly distorted.

Despite the significance of the 9/11 attacks and the terrorist assaults preceding them, few people can answer the questions: What is the relationship between the mastermind of the first attack on the World Trade Center and the mastermind of 9/11? What is their ethnicity?

The mastermind of the 1993 trade center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, is the nephew of the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, according to American authorities. Both are from Baluchistan. Following Yousef’s 1995 arrest in Islamabad, The New York Times reported:

“Pakistani investigators had noted that President Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq had tried to exploit animosities against the Iran government among Baluch tribal people in southeastern Iran. ... This could explain how Mr. Yousef came into possession of the Iraqi passport that he used when he arrived in New York in September 1992, six months before the World Trade Center bombing.”

Ammar al-Baluchi, another nephew, provided most of the hijackers’ financing. American officials describe al-Baluchi as Mohammed’s “right-hand man.”

This family was not particularly religious — witness their dissolute behavior in Manila, where they planned another attack. What was their motive? As I explain in greater detail on my Web site, LaurieMylroie.com, Iraq’s terrorist links under Saddam Hussein were far-reaching, and the likelihood that Al Qaeda was penetrated and used as a cat’s paw by Saddam’s regime for revenge against America quite real.